1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of mobile communications and, more particularly, to an intelligent and resource saving technique for exchanging data with a mobile device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices are widely used by people to stay connected with family, friends, and occupational obligations. The connectivity provided by such devices allows businesses to overcome geographical distances, creating a distributed system of virtual offices. The common communication modes that mobile devices are used for include email, data transfer, text messaging, phone, two-way radio and instant messaging. Many of these mobile devices provide an integrated storage space, such as flash memory or a hard drive, that is synchronized with a storage space of a permanent computer. Within the synchronized data space, people can share and collaborate on a variety of files, such as calendar information and documents. Examples of data exchanges where storage spaces are synchronized can include a conveyance of patient records to/from a medical record system, an update of customer account information in response to a banking transaction or purchase through an e-retailer, and/or an inventory update between a barcode equipped scanning device and an inventory management system. A capability of synchronizing data spaces can allow a mobile device or remote computer system to function as an extension of an existing company network.
However, data exchanges made via this extensive network are not without cost. A data exchange between a mobile device and another remote computing device consumes device resources and sometimes incurs a monetary usage charge. For example, sending a text message from a mobile phone consumes battery power of the phone and connectivity providers often charge a user a fee for each text message sent.
Further, mobile devices often have a limited battery life that is consumed when a transceiver, such as a BLUETOOTH transceiver, a WIFI (802.11 family of protocols) transceiver, or a mobile telephone transceiver is active. Many mobile devices utilize a power-down or power-saving mode, which selectively activates transceivers on an as needed basis. Repeatedly powering these devices on and off when data exchanges occur, however, can have a significant detrimental effect on battery life. Similarly, bandwidth is usually limited when a mobile device is not within close proximity to a fixed computing device supplying connectivity. Appreciably, most mobile phones have multiple mutually exclusive modes, such as a data mode and a calling mode, so that when a large file is being downloaded/uploaded to or from a mobile phone and when bandwidth for these exchanges is relatively limited, the mobile phone is not available to receive incoming calls or to make outgoing calls for a potentially lengthy duration. Accordingly, data exchanges involving mobile devices can result in significant connectivity expenses and/or a significant lack of availability.
Conventional mobile devices have limited configurable options for exchanging data. One option is to immediately send and/or receive all messages whenever messages are available. This method can be extremely costly from a resource consumption perspective. Another conventional option is to connect the mobile device periodically to a remote data source on an iterative basis. Although this can conserve device resources, some data exchanges have a relatively high priority to the user and delays occurring between data exchanges can have negative effects.
For instance, it is desirable for a businessman to receive a meeting cancellation notice before the businessman is traveling to the meeting. If the notice is sent via email or text message near the time of the meeting, the businessman can become frustrated with any delay in receiving the cancellation notice.
Conventional mobile devices and exchange technologies lack mechanisms that permit a user, corporate system administrator, or message sender to balance message urgency against resource costs incurred though mobile device data exchanges.